1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for treating hepatitis B or hepatoma, particularly to a method using heat shock protein inhibitor for treating hepatitis B or hepatoma.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hepatitis is the national disease of Taiwan. Until now, the prevalence rate of hepatitis B is still as high as 16% in Taiwan, which is the highest one in the world. Traditionally, liver disease is a native disease prevailing in Asia. Hepatoma is a cancer frequently seen in Taiwan, mainland China, Thailand and Korea. Hepatocellular carcinoma is often seen in Asia and Africa. In spite of being treated with surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, the patients suffering hepatocellular carcinoma still have low average survival rate. According to epidemiological study, the regions of high hepatitis virus infection rate have more hepatoma cases. In Taiwan, over 90% of the patients of hepatoma are the carriers of hepatitis B virus.
After infecting a patient, hepatitis B virus will reproduce massively in the liver of the patient. At present, the medication to treat hepatitis B includes the hypodermic injection-type interferon-group drugs and the oral-type nucleoside-group drugs, such as Zeffix (Lamivudine), He-psera (Adefovir Dipivoxil), Baraclude (Entecavir), Sebivo (Telbivudine), and Viread (Tenofovir). However, the abovementioned drugs are unable to scavenge hepatitis B virus but only to inhibit the reproduction of hepatitis B virus in the liver. Therefore, hepatitis B is still hard to be radically cured at present. Hence, it is necessary to develop a drug able to thoroughly scavenge hepatitis B virus-infected cells.